Arthur Sale, Generic Risk Analysis - Open Access for your institution, Technical Report, School of Computing, University of Tasmania, March 7, 2006. For universities considering the an institutional repository and a strong policy to fill it, a succinct list of the risks, an evaluation of their probability and severity, analysis of the issues they raise, and advice for minimizing them.
Abstract: This is a generic risk analysis for any institution (university, research organization, etc) contemplating the installation of an Open Access Repository. It covers the major risks identified by experienced repository operators. The key risks are 2.1b, 2.3 and 2.8, and actions are recommended to reduce these risks to 'low' (scoring 6 or below out of a possible 25). If these actions are taken, establishing an Open Access Repository is truly a low risk operation.
This analysis does not specifically address benefits of an Open Access Repository, which can be found elsewhere. It is assumed that your institution has made an in-principle decision, at least.
Thanks to all the members of the international community of Open Access who contributed to this document.
Comment. Very useful, especially for administrators who expect or demand this kind of risk analysis. For other kinds of administrators, the BOAI Self-Archiving FAQ answers more objections and gives more detail. Using the two documents together should be very effective.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 3/07/2006 08:06:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
